This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art, which may be related to various aspects of the present invention that are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present invention. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
There are of course many existing ways of distributing software, usually based on having the user select the desired version (depending on the operating system) and then either downloading the software or installing it from a DVD, a USB key or the like. A first variant is to download an exact software image onto the target computer, but this causes problems if there is the slightest difference between the configuration of the target computer and the configuration for which the software image is intended. A second variant is to run an installation program that either requests the user to enter manually the configuration of the target computer or to have the installation program do this automatically. This second variant results in a software image that is an exact match for the target computer.
Various bells and whistles to the basic schemes are provided in for example US 2008/0046708, WO 2008/154426, US 2006/0218549, US 2006/075486 and US 2008/250476 without changing the essentials thereof.
A drawback with these solutions is that they are fairly inflexible. It can therefore be appreciated that there is a need for a more flexible solution for software installation. This invention provides such a solution.